Antler doubles down on AI with US$7.4M in early-stage funding across Southeast Asia

Singapore, 13 August 2025—Amid a sharp slowdown in early-stage VC funding across Southeast Asia, Antler, the global early‑stage venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore, today confirmed an investment of US$7.4 million into startups across Southeast Asia during the first half of 2025.

The Antler-funded startups in H1 2025 span key innovation hubs across Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, reflecting the region’s growing depth of entrepreneurial talent and AI capability. Within this region‑wide deployment, the firm doubles down on AI-focused ventures through US$2.8 million funding in seven AI startups graduating from AI Disrupt, a new four‑week, in‑person residency designed for teams with an MVP and in early stages of serving live customers with their core AI technology. This latest deployment reinforces Antler’s position as the world’s most active AI investor, leading with 74 AI investments worldwide in 2024. 

Based in Singapore, AI Disrupt is purposefully designed to accelerate startups at the forefront of AI innovation. This program targets companies already demonstrating significant customer traction, offering tailored support to scale go-to-market strategies and technical capabilities rapidly.

Winnie Khoo, Partner at Antler, emphasized: “With the speed of product development made possible through technology today, we are matching that with our support to founders and investment into startups. AI startups are moving 10x faster than just 2 years ago, and AI Disrupt is purpose-built for founders with market-validated products to move and scale much faster. These AI founders do not wait. Moving aggressively is a moat that founders can gain in the AI age.”

The seven selected startups each secured US$400,000 in funding after spending a four-week sprint focusing on their go-to-market, scalability, and rapid expansion. During the residency, each startup received access to over US$650,000 worth of cloud computing, infrastructure, and tooling credits tailored specifically for AI-focused development to enhance their speed of execution.

Startups that received investment through Antler AI Disrupt

1. Iris: Autonomous, no-code agents for workflow automation and data collection.
2. Nugen: Domain-aligned AI enhancing reliability in specialized agent workflows.
3. IndustrialMind.ai: Intelligence solutions optimizing manufacturing operations.
4. Lambdai Space: AI-driven radar imaging for actionable climate and insurance insights.
5. Anamaya AI: AI-powered travel aggregation optimizing corporate travel.
6. AppSecAI: Automation of application security accelerating software delivery.
7. 5.Y (GLUCOSE): Autonomous customer engagement and personalization in complex industries.

Investing amid regional market volatility

Southeast Asia’s early-stage venture market faced headwinds in the first half of 2025, marked by a 68% year-over-year decline in seed funding and a 53% drop in overall early-stage investments. For many founders, this environment means longer fundraising cycles, tougher investor scrutiny, and fewer avenues for follow-on capital.

Against this backdrop, Antler is leaning into highly curated AI startups with high potential, providing larger initial investments and targeted support for them to scale faster. This proactive stance reflects Antler’s confidence that emerging technologies will be the drivers of the region’s next wave of growth and innovation. 

Jussi Salovaara, Co-founder and Managing Partner Asia at Antler, added: “The current funding landscape across Southeast Asia in early 2025 demands that founders be sharper than ever in both their approach and execution. We are prepared to match their speed and provide flexible early capital that enables them to accelerate, but we are also more selective. Once a team can demonstrate a compelling use case for their technology and the ambition to scale globally, we will back them with conviction.”